It would be totally naive to think Murdoch’s US flagship FOX wasn’t using the same tactics of intimidation and blackmail. So lets keep the stories coming in, FOX News may be in the news before long and ultimately damaged enough, so their influence on your politics will be greatly diminished, too. Wishful thinking?

This is our Open Thread. What do you wish for? And go see, there may be new stories coming up during the day below this and we don’t do hacking just thinking.

Ahmed Wali Karzai, the controversial king of Kandahar and younger half-brother of the Afghan president, was shot dead by one of his bodyguards on Tuesday.

The assassination sent shock waves through the country, throwing into doubt the already brittle stability of Kandahar province where the Taliban have murdered dozens of police officers and government officials over the last two years.

If Wali Karzai was the ‘stability’ in Kandahar, I’d hate to see a more corrupt dirtbag come to power now that he’s gone.

vinyl, I’m melting. The thing is, it’s stuffy as hell and we’re in for some serious thunderstorms.Again. Then bring out the sweater, it’s going to be cold. Then a day later back to tropical. Small wonder we all feel thoroughly exhausted here.

I would like to believe that justice will be done but after watching Chimpy, Darth Cheney, Addington, and Yoo skate away, I am not too optimistic that anything will really be done.
People like Murdoch always manage to outsource their liability and find a scapegoat.
He’s one of those guys that feels that rules don’t apply to him

We could always hope the Man In The Sky will send them all to hell, but since they say they are christian, all will be forgiven and they’ll spend eternity in heaven, just to show how much the Man In The Sky loves anyone who says they belive in His Son, even though they caused the deaths of thousands of thousands of people, and even though they caused untold suffering for thousands of thousands more.

I guess that doesn’t count as permissible “regime change” because the bodyguard hadn’t previously published a strategy paper?

Of the many many many stupid actions of the US regarding Afghanistan, the principle fuck-up was the complete disregard for the socio-political dynamics of the country in favor of a Power-Point ‘analysis’ of nation-building predicated on the usual delusions of American exceptionalism–and what’s especially ridiculous is that in principle Afghanistan is no different from the US: Kabul is Washington, Kandahar is Dallas, the rest of the country is Mississippi and Kansas, the warlords are the local politicians and the Chamber of Commerce, and the Taliban are the AFA and the like.

They all have their turfs to protect and their agendas, and they are all opportunists and “libertarians”—-not intellectuals interested in establishing an equitable society,. .

Basically, we are all the same. It’s been that way forever. Only little changes occur over a long period of time. We progress slowly. I’m reading “Fall of Giants” by Ken Follett. The time period for the story is between 1911 and 1918. That was a time period of major change. Since the story includes real people, there is a bit of historical references in the book.

One of the most significant facts of that period was the change from coal to oil power. That was actually a major factor in shaping WWI, which ‘the popular history’ ignores in favor of a “domino effect” of the various bi-partite/tripartite treaties triggered by the murder of some insignificant crown prince.

Follett talks about the change from coal to oil in his book and how that change impacted the politics of that time period. It is obvious that he does extensive research when he is creating a story. Some people may refer to his novels as “historical fiction”. James A. Michener did the same thing in his books. A bit of truth mixed in with fictional characters.

hey , those were just my thoughts. You beat me to it, and so very well. thanks for posting. Actually you all beat me to the daily posts; my day starts later and ends later AND I am on the LEFT (OMG!!!) coast!

The truth always seems to have a way of leaking out to the public. Greed and the quest for power eventually leads to ruin. We all have are wannabes seeking to control the masses.

Last night the thought occurred to me that politicians might be wannabe actors that could never make it on the stage so they turn to politics. I’ve spent way too much time with politicians and they all seem to be two different people. There’s the public person and then there is the private person. Sometimes these two personalities are very similar. Often times, they are very different. It fascinating watching these politicians perform to their audience, the voters. Running for office is not for the faint of heart. The political world is extremely cruel.

Then there are the methods of fraud, bribery and theft of information, to be used in the Political category for intimidation and blackmail, and in the Celebrity/Sensational category as a tool of immediate business competition, to be the “FIRST!” with the information and to boast “EXCLUSIVE!”

Obviously it worked for years in the UK, so why wouldn’t it be applied in the US as well?
Especially as FOX has actually been licensed</i< by the courts to engage in journalistic fraud and to lie without consequence.

Okay, they were playing the audio to this on Stephanie Miller this morning, so I found the video for you. This man apparently wants to contend for a Darwin Award. And these are the people who want to have guns. Everywhere. All the time.

I just don’t have the speed today to view the video clip.
Assholes shooting themselves in the leg? I have a better one and much more tragic.
I overlook a valley (Federal land and a huge cattleranch ) there is also an open shooting area there (dumbfucks with assault rifles near the ranch). about a year ago, I saw Medic choppers flying in there and many sirens. It seems that a 12 YEAR OLD MALE accidently killed his father with a rifle.. Fortunately right now, the shooting area is closed because of fire danger. At least we don’t wake up to gunshot and hear it almost all night. WTF are they shooting at at NIGHT????? and why semi automatics??????

He had left his gun loaded when he put in his trunk, and when he took it out the trigger caught on something and shot him the leg. The bullet hit the femur, changed direction, and traveled to his heart. He didn’t make it to the hospital. His wife, a lovely woman who had witnessed the whole thing, was never the same.

That’s a hoot. I do wish that rather than playing quick draw from a holster, he’d have carried his gun like Brando did in One-eyed Jacks — stuffed into his waistline right behind the belt buckle.

I mean if a ‘quick draw McGraw’ type idiot is going to shoot himself, why not do it so as to remove all future possibilities of reproducing himself? Make the world laugh, ok, but make it a better place in the process.

We had a case when I was on the Grand Jury involving some dumbstein who had burgled the home of a Sheriff’s deputy and boosted all the guns. Outside of the fact that he had his car parked on a city street with all the goods on display in the back seat, he gave the arresting officer permission to search him and answered “no” when asked if any weapons would be found in the search.

Naturally, he was using the Brando holster. When the cop pulled out the handgun, it blew a large chunk from the bad guy’s thigh, missing his reproductive organs by well under an inch.

Whilst the focus is naturally on Murdoch, look at what crops up in the Guardian coverage ( thanks for the link EV)

In 2008 Paul Dacre (left), the editor of the Daily Mail, gave a speech to the Society of Editors:

“The fourth issue we raised with Gordon Brown was a truly frightening amendment to the Data Protection Act, winding its way through Parliament, under which journalists faced being jailed for two years for illicitly obtaining personal information such as ex-directory telephone numbers or an individual’s gas bills or medical records. This legislation would have made Britain the only country in the free world to jail journalists and could have had a considerable chilling effect on good journalism.

In other words, Paul Dacre, Editor of The Daily Mail. thinks that plainly illegal activity by journalists deserved protection and notably he uses “medical records” as an example of the kind of information he thinks it is somehow totally okay to steal. :Like Gordon brown’s son’s medical records?
The Murdoch Empire could collapse because of all this, but as far as justifying illegal acts by journalists there exists an amoral doppleganger at the Daily Mail, presently on no-ones radar it seems. . .

5th, the whole media industry is questionable. Btw. Germany has rather strict privacy and data protection laws and each and everyone of those hackers would face jail time. To be honest I read my share of yellow press and I have no qualms whatsoever when it comes to the media crazy celebs. But crime victims and war dead and their families, children… beneath any measurable contempt.

It might interest you to know that I was (arguably) once a part of the yellow press!
I was an agency celebrity photographer for a year or so, in Manhattan. I got published in The Star, Weekly World News as well as more respectable celebrity US mags and newspapers ( and abroad too).
A lot of the people I met in that business were British, and not the least bit interested in actual journalism—not surprising really. They did indeed make crap up all the time, for fun and profit.

I learned the same, never point a gun at a person unless you are willing to kill them. I never even let my kids point toy guns at people. While visiting friends, I had one son ask my permission to play laser tag as he would have to aim at his friends.

That’s what my dad taught me and my sisters. Even though we never had toy guns, we weren’t even allowed to point anything that we were pretending was a gun.

My youngest sister carries a gun in her job, and she is rabid about gun safety. A moronic co-worker decided he was going to be “funny” and try to disarm her. He only succeeded in tasering himself with her taser. :lol:

No worries. She’s from AZ, first of all, and therefore the fact that she owns a number of guns and has had “informal” training sessions on each of them means she’s qualified to point, without penalty, a loaded gun at anyone she finds annoying. It would have been more interesting, though, if the reporter had been an armed quick draw artist like in an Old West movie.

First rule of gun safety: Never, ever, point a gun at anything you don’t wish to kill. Anyone stupid enough to point a firearm at a person should be cast out of office and have their permit revoked on the spot.

After serving almost 24 years in the U.S. House of Representatives, Congressman Ron Paul told The Facts this morning he will not be seeking another term for the District 14 seat. Paul, 75, will instead focus on his quest for the presidency in 2012.

He started out claiming Thom was in favor of everyone getting paid the same amount of money, and when Thom said no, he wasn’t in favor of that, he tried to claim Bernie Sanders was for it. Then Thom corrected him on that, and the stammering and magpie chattering started. Then Thom had to put him on hold so he could get a word in edgewise.

I can argue a little with #1. It’s too socialist. The majority of mail I receive is commercial advertising. The rate must be too cheap. The government is subsidizing private businesses. Plus providing an incentive to kill too many trees.

BENEFIEL: You know there’s a statue in New York harbor called the Statue of Liberty.You know where we got it from? French Freemasons. Listen folks that is an idol, a demonic idol, right there in New York harbor. People say, ‘well no it’s patriotic.’ What makes it patriotic? Why is it? It’s a statue of a false goddess, the Queen of Heaven. We don’t get liberty from a false goddess folks, we get our liberty from Jesus Christ and that Statue of Liberty in no way glorifies Jesus Christ. There is no connection whatsoever. So I’m just telling you we practice idolatry in America in ways that we don’t even recognize.

It’s a freakin statue! A gesture signifying the similar notions of liberty shared by two secular nations. It has no religious significance but fundies just can’t seem to comprehend that anything can have no religious significance.

White MALE christians.
Really, who give a rat’s ass what that freaking loonie toon says? What is scary is the ones who buy this bullshit, can, and do reproduce and yes maybe they vote. Thay did last November.

Can someone please explain what Jesus Christ has to do with American “liberty”? I presume there’s no biblical passage to that effect, so the theory must come from elsewhere. Which elsewhere might that be? Anyone?

This is the sort of vomit-inducing idiocy that typifies the Religious Right. Jesus Christ had nothing, zero, nada to do with our liberty. We (humans) did that ourselves by creating a nation built on the rule of law.

Jesus Christ had all sorts of lessons to teach, but Benefiel and his ilk would prefer to ignore them because they’re difficult, they require sacrifice and they demand care for the weakest among us. Liberty? Not so much.

Dinnin’t you know? Jesus led George Washington across the Delaware to celebrate His Birthday by slaughtering a bunch of Hessian mercenary soldiers, thus delivering Washington to the District of Christ (hence, Washington, D. C.)

It’s always the Librulz who are told to “get over it”, whilst the right wing NEVER “gets over it”—separation of church and state/the supremacy clause/legal abortion/evolution/public education/social services; they NEVER “get over it”!

Corbett is just as much a piece of trash as Gov Christi. The media doesn’t pay much attention to him because he is the quiet, sleezy, one that does everything in secret. He doesn’t do press conferences. Somewhat of a Chaney clone.

Heavens to Betsy!
The only thing I can imagine worse than a Freemason is a French Freemason.
And it’s green too!
It should be red white and blue and fart the star spangled banner while corporate logos flash across a jumbotron.
Yes, that would make it “patriotic”
I’m surprised Sarah Palin hasn’t weighed in on this.

I found the guy we needed to sign a corrected deed on my property and gave the info to my realtor, who gave it to the title company. Simple, right?

Apparently not. I guess they’d found a different guy with the same name, and were sending him the corrected deed, rather than using the info on the guy I had actually talked to, and who was the RIGHT GUY. So now they’re scrambling again TODAY to get it right.

I used to be a closer for a title company. The smaller ones here the title work was supposed to be done by attorney members (the seller’s attorney) who gets paid by the title company and his client. The absolute worst attorneys who screwed up the closing were the ones who bullshitted the most and made their clients think they were working to rectify the situation which they had created in the first place. And they always blamed the closer.

Not familiar with that movie, but the concept, yes. Not from anything I had hammered in me as a lad, however. My sainted mother, a Lutheran, saw to my religious “education”, but none of it that I can still recall had anything to do with hatred, or viciousness, or damnation, none of that crap. In fact, after a few “fear god” tales, the instruction was mostly aimed at how to help others, to be generous and kind, to care, etc. Complete anathema to today’s Christer binge, I know, but back then quite common. At least on the prairie in S. Minnesota.

Jesus Camp is available on YouTube in 10 minute clips; which is about all I can stomach in one session. Truly disgusting people who steal the innocence of children in an effort to create an “army of God”.

If not raising the debt ceiling would cause Wall Street to vaporize, I might be convinced that such might be a good thing. So long as the SS Admin. keeps sending me my monthly stipend, of course (yay Socialism!).

There’s an inversion of events in the above. I forget the name of the columnist from (I believe) Chicago who proposed that Santorum’s be used as a term for “the frothy brown substance” that is known to ooze out after such engagements, but he proposed the name because Santorum was such a dick; it is not a meaning that had already been attached to the word in the past.

True. However, I can’t help but wonder how many FAUXhens are now convinced that CFLs cost $6.00 while an equivalent incandescent costs $.39. Neither, of course, is true. I replaced every bulb in the house when CFLs were on sale for a buck apiece. That was more than three years ago and, despite Doocy’s claim that “”they don’t work” I’ve yet to have one burn out. Of course, Doocy is also too effing stupid to buy a bulb with higher output when his lamp is too dim for reading.

Plus, it was George W. Bush that signed the original legislation that gives the nuts fits, long before Obama assumed the presidency.

Must hurt to be so stupid as to find employment with Fox “news”.

We haven’t bought an incandescent for years, ‘cept for the few places where curly bulbs don’t fit right. Haven’t missed ‘em either. Got sick of replacing them every couple of months; now it’s every couple of years, or maybe more.

Oh, and we don’t buy them because of anything Bush signed — we buy them because they save us money even as they get the job done. No WONDER we don’t work for Fox! :shock:

Because the wattage of a CFL bulb is much lower than that of an incandescent, you can use higher wattage CFL giving you the equivalent light of a higher wattage incandescent. For example: If your fixture says not to exceed 60 watts, you can use a 15 watt CFL to get the same amount of light as an incandescent bulb or use up to a 42 watt CFL and increase the amount of light.

From Huffpo/Busness:Federal Reserve officials at their last meeting expressed concerns that the weakening job market might hold back the economic recovery.
MIGHT? How about WILL, you Fed fucktards. JOBS = economic growth, you dipshits!

“The recent deterioration in labor market conditions was a particular concern … because the prospects for job growth were seen as an important source of uncertainty in the economic outlook,” the minutes of the Fed’s late-June meeting read.

GAAAAH! It’s the deterioration in the labor market that’s creating uncertainty is it? It could possibly be the other way round? Like the deterioration in HIRING FOR JOBS that is fucking everything up? NO?

The headline for this should read:Fed. Reserve Officials Annoyed That Unemployed Making Them Look Bad, Clueless.

actually, sod-all temp hiring either, because the temp still costs double what companies have now reduced their former employees to—$12-14,p.h. , no doubling of that for the temp agency, and no bennies, ‘cos you are starting over and ‘fuck you anyway, take it or eat cigarette buts and old lottery tickets, your choice. .

Netflix Inc. (NFLX), the online and mail- order movie rental company, raised prices by 60 percent for U.S. subscribers who want both services, citing the costs to acquire and deliver films and TV shows.

Netflix will no longer offer a $9.99 package of DVD-by-mail and unlimited streaming, the company said in a statement today. Instead, more than 23 million subscribers will pay $15.98 monthly beginning Sept. 1 if they choose both options, or $7.99 for just one.

We dumped Netflix via our Xbox 360 after realizing there weren’t any new movies worth watching. We had a free trial offer of like 13 days and cancelled.
We get the occasional Redbox movie for $1.10 once every couple of weeks.

After getting my Netflix email about the price hike, I notice I can save $10/month just with a little patience — will be reducing four-at-once to two-at-once. I was originally very skeptical of the streaming feature but with a new monitor and some digging through the offerings (esp. old tv shows) I’ve become a fan. Finally will get to watch all of Farscape in order for free (DVDs were grotesquely expensive), whenever I want to watch an episode. And, yes, I have terrible taste.

In this week’s Newsweek interview, Palin offered this uber-American anecdote about the economy:

“I was ticked off at Todd yesterday,” she said. “He walks into a gas station as we’re driving over from Minnesota. He buys a Slim Jim—we’re always eating that jerky stuff—for $2.69. I said, ‘Todd, those used to be 99 cents, just recently!’ And he says, ‘Man, the dollar’s worth nothing anymore.’ A jug of milk and a loaf of bread and a dozen eggs—every time I walk into that grocery store, a couple of pennies more…”

Teresa Paulsen, a ConAgra spokeswoman, said that “we admire Mr. Palin’s taste and appreciate his support,” but added that “we haven’t raised the price significantly on any Slim Jim products.” She also offered a possible explanation for the confusion. “Our iconic Slim Jim Giant Sticks are priced around $1.30,” Paulsen said. “Mr. Palin might have been reaching for one of our Slim Jim Monster Sticks, which offers double the meat for $2.30, or our Slim Jim Kippered Beef Steak, which typically sells for around $2.65.”

They also address the larger point behind Palin’s anecdote:

“Food prices — an always-volatile sector — are indeed going up, and that may or may not be a worry for the longer term. However, food prices are not rising by anything approaching 169 percent. Her anecdote offers spice, but not a lot of meat. We rate it False.”

Of course she she was ticked off at Todd …..for paying the asking price for Jerky!
She could have gotten it for free, by just pretending she needed it for jury duty and America, so she could be undefeated in jogging suits, also.

Why was she mad at Todd? Was it his fault that the price of jerky had supposedly gone up? Of course not. Palin MAKES NO SENSE.
She’s lying about the 99 cents. She’s making a million a year off Fox alone, she certainly made $5000,000 in appearnaces since she quit , she was fronted a million for her first book, etc etc. Todd Palin races fucking skidoos! He doesn’t give a shit about the price of milk!!!

All absolute bullshit to make a political point based on lies, for the political campaign that’s going on INSIDE HER HEAD!

And, on the D.C front, McConnell lays a cunning trap for the president…

from the msnbc.com staff and news service reports

“The top Republican in the Senate proposed on Tuesday giving President Barack Obama sweeping new power to, in effect, unilaterally increase the nation’s debt limit to avoid a first-ever default on U.S. obligations.

Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., offered a new plan to allow the president to demand up to $2.4 trillion in new borrowing authority by the summer of next year in three separate submissions.
…”

Nice try ChinlessMitch.
Abrogation of one’s Congressional purview isn’t part of the Constifuckingtution.

Even the Republican leadership knows they can’t not raise the debt ceiling, without seriously pissing off Wall Street, and that they cannot afford to do.

Keith made a funny. He introduced Sam Stein as from the Washington Post, instead of Huffington Post, and Stein said, ‘maybe one day’. Then Keith asked him, ‘Are you sure that would be an improvement?’ :D

Zooey, on your move to somewhere along the Oregon Coast, when you stop in Zip 97365, find a place overlooking the ocean where you can enjoy a glass of wine. If you see someone walking a pig along the beach take it as a sign of future happiness! :wink:

Somewhere there is a Title Company in need of your skills. A position that leads to the opportunity to acquire a property suitable for a Zoo commune.

Whew! I thought I was going to go the whole day without finding any Reichwhiners who make me laugh. I must admit that the outrage of the FAUXhounds did the trick in this instance.They just can’t stand the fact that a black Muslim would dare to, accurately, call Batscat Bachmann an “extremist”.

So I just go an e-mail from my placement-assistance officer from my IT school: .
“I saw this job and thought you might be interested in this opportunity.” she wrote.

The “opportunity” is a 20 hour a week internship that pays NOTHING and that is 400 miles AWAY!

But here’s the best part:
“Upon completion of internship, student(s) will have gained practical experience in all aspects of computer help desk operations.”
And how does someone qualify for this internship? All you need is your name, and:

Basic understanding of PC operations and troubleshooting in multiple Windows operating systems
Basic understanding of networking principles and protocols (TCP/IP)
Good working knowledge of Microsoft Office applications
Good working knowledge of email systems, Lotus Notes experience a plus
A+ Certification or equivalent hardware/operating system training a plus
One year work experience in a customer service environment.
Strong written and oral communications skills
Strong customer service skills
Ability to learn to troubleshoot laptop/desktop PC hardware/operating system issues
Ability to learn the functionality and architecture of new systems and apply this knowledge to correctly address and resolve employee issues

In other words If you already have all the skills and experience needed for the internship job, then when you are finished you will have all the skills/experience needed for the intern job you just did.
Or to put it another, you really won’t learn anything you don’t already know or can’t already do, but you will save the management the expense of having to pay you for your work and expertise, and you will help improve productivity, for which you will receive no reward whatsoever.

I would like to tell you that, but I don;t ever want to lie to you, my friend. I am getting really sick and tired of the “U.S.” Chamber of Commerce being treated as if it has a say on anything regarding our national policies. They are un-American and they actively work to destroy the American way of life for the sake of the richest of the rich in this country. They are scum, and as far as I’m concerned, they should be publicly shunned as if they were a convicted criminal operation. If they were to close their doors tomorrow, I would treat it as a holiday and take the day off every year for the rest of my life. They have done NOTHING that benefits Americans at large, no matter how they try to spin what they do.

I believe we’ll see more people taking to the streets when we figure out a way to let them know the truth. Once they are exposed to the truth, enough of them (not all of them, because people can be that way) but enough, will start protesting.

I watched Col Larry Wilkerson on Keith tonight say that when he goes places to give speeches, he still finds people who do not believe that Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11, or that al Qaeda wasn’t in Iraq before we invaded.

There’s a billboard on I-5 just south of Centralia, WA, where I am reminded each time I pass that it doesn’t matter if you are a racist, arrogant fascist, all it takes is money to say whatever you want. On this trip:

When I was a clerk in the county treasurer’s office, when I first moved to Idaho, I was shocked to be witness to a conversation between two soccer mom-types at the counter, opining that single mothers should not be allowed to vote. After all, they’re all on welfare and don’t own property, along with other filthy crap.

As they spoke, I and the other clerk had our chins on our chests. We were both divorced mothers, who had never been on welfare, and she owned her own home.

I wanted to knock those bitches heads together like a couple empty coconuts.

Zooey, I’m afraid that knocking their heads together would just make an annoying sound. As much as I abhor violence I have found that a punch to the throat is more effective in getting one’s point across. If more permanent damage is your goal then a kick straight to the kneecap is very effective.

I studied martial arts for awhile and the best thing to do, if one is forced to fight, is to fight dirty and disable one’s opponent as quickly and brutally as possible. Thankfully, the only times I’ve had to fight were both to prevent drunken dumbshits from beating their girlfriends. Neither of them was in any position to do any damage after a single blow.

Just a guess, but I imagine she had good reason to do what she apparently did. I don’t condone violence, but there are times I can be coaxed by circumstance into looking the other way. He may well be lucky that I’m not on the jury in the upcoming trial.

I will be contacting each of the primary winners and imploring them to really hammer home the vile tactics used against them, their state, and the whole democratic process in said primaries. I have a feeling that the GOoPers overplayed their hand.

If the good people of Wisconsin have taught us anything it’s that we can’t sit on our hands and hope leaders will act on our behalf. Participating in the Madison protests would have been too much of a hardship for me but I can sure as Hell fire off a few emails and let the primary winners know that they have the support of people across the Mississippi and around the nation. And, as you may have noticed, I don’t shy away from making suggestions.

When hopes are crushed it hurts and we sane people have had a lot of hopes crushed in recent years. But? Despair hurts more than having one’s hopes crushed and those moments of hopefulness feel pretty damn good.

That’s just it Pete. Progressives didn’t expect Obama to get everything we wanted, but for cripes sake at least fight for those who got him elected and those who are struggling to survive. I understand he wanted to change the atmosphere in DC and tried working with republicans but my God, how many times are you going to allow yourself to be kicked in the balls.

How long will is it going to take before Obama realizes you cannot work with or play nice with the republicans? They are simply out to destroy him and if they destroy the country in the process, so be it.

Leading up to the 2008 election Scott Walker was caught on tape arranging a “caging” scheme. A Wisconsin political reporter was on a local radio show and said something that stuck with me. He said; “if there’s a political scandal in Wisconsin, Scott Walker is in the middle of it.”

Wisconsin could end up recalling a number of Senators and their Governor before the general elections in 2012. Let’s do all in our power to make that a reality and then carry it on to, at the risk of sounding like a teabagger, take our country back.

Zooey….because of the shutdown the government is losing so much revenue, it’s absolutely unbelievable. I hope Dayton stands strong, although it was announced he is planning to raise the cigarette tax to something like $1.29.

Right now the Minnesota republicans, local republican pundits and columnists are trying to push the message that Dayton planned the shutdown all along just to raise taxes and push a social agenda.

Just like the national republicans, they are willing to hurt the poor, the less fortunate and the middle class to help the wealthy. My God we are so lucky that right wing extremist, TomEmmer wasn’t elected governor!

Well? The most vital services have been protected by the courts. The rest of us are pulling together and taking care of our own. Over and above my own project of feeding kids one good meal a week, donations to food shelves are approaching record highs. I guess there’s more than a little truth behind “Minnesota nice”.

The real hit will take longer to become apparent. Over 20,000 government workers are out of work for the duration. A whole bunch of road crews, who are not technically “government workers” are out of work as well. The layoffs will definitely have an impact on the state’s economy but it’s just too soon to tally the cost.

One of the factors that really ticks me off is that our State Parks were shut down over the 4th of July weekend. That’s one of the three weekends where they are guaranteed to turn a profit.

As is typical of Reichwhiners they have managed to hurt the ones they consider more palatable, like people who actually perform a service for the state, while the hated “entitlements” are still active because even Reich-wing judges realize that allowing people to starve in the dark will kill their electoral chances.

Hey Pete, if you are still out there…I don’t know if you get the Star Tribune, if you do, what the heck happened to Nick Coleman? I haven’t seen his column in the Sunday paper for over two months now. Did he retire?????

I’m a little drunk so I can’t remember if I passed on the latest news. We didn’t have a community meeting last week and I thought we were going to wait for the last Saturday of the month. I spent the day helping a friend clear out some storm danged trees.

Well? The picnic went on without me. They fed 42 kids and finished the day with $120.00 in the pot. The only downer was that the management company won’t let us run our own food shelf out of the office but we have enough trustworthy people to make it happen. One of the gals negotiated a deal with the local supermarket to sell us $10.00 gift certificates for $9.00 to anyone who lives in the complex. I think that will be a “win win” for everybody involved.